Washington

In a stinging defeat for the biomedical research lobby, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is about to settle a lawsuit brought by animal-rights activists which seeks to bring some 23 million laboratory rats, mice and birds under the protection of the Animal Welfare Act.

If the suit is successful, 95% of laboratory animals will be subject to a new set of federal regulations. On Monday, the USDA was in the final stages of negotiating a settlement under which the agency would begin procedures that might lead to the extension of the law.

Advocates of biomedical research criticized the move. “Settling this suit without taking into account the deep concerns of the research community is a serious mistake,” said a statement from Jordan Cohen, the president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The lawsuit was filed last year by the Minnesota-based Alternatives Research and Development Foundation, which argued that the agriculture department had “arbitrarily and capriciously” excluded these animals from the 1966 law (see Nature 400, 197– 198; 1999).

Researchers argue that other regulations already force them to take appropriate care of rats, mice and birds.